Deyalsingh: Party with caution, covid is still here

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has urged feters to assess the risk before participating in crowded events.

Deyalsingh said the government had done its part by sourcing and providing vaccines to all as a layer of protection from covid19, but now the onus is on each individual not to take unnecessary chances.

At his ministry’s virtual news conference on Wednesday, he said, “On the issue of partying we ask people, just to be careful. Do your own risk assessment – each of us has to do this assessment, whether you’re vaccinated or not – on how you, as an individual or family, would navigate yourself through this phase of the pandemic."

His plea came two weeks after the Prime Minister said parties and public fetes would be allowed from April 4. Since then event promoters have announced events starting this weekend.

“We are not in a bad place, so we ask people to be careful how you party and socialise especially if you’re unvaccinated. Remember half of the population is unvaccinated and that’s why we could have only opened up because those real patriots got vaccinated.

“You need to ask yourself, ‘What level of risk am I willing to take knowing that, in any gathering, half of the people are unvaccinated.’”

Deyalsingh said it all came down to personal responsibility.

“Since we started this vaccination programme, more and more of the responsibility to manage this pandemic shifts from government action, government intervention, to personal responsibility.”

Responding to a question on TT’s herd immunity status, epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said the country needs at least 95 per cent of the population vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

Up to Tuesday, a little over 50 per cent of TT had taken the vaccine.

“Herd immunity is where you get to a stage where the virus is really unable to continue to propagate itself because of the proportion of immune individuals.

"At this point, we are still seeing a rolling average of over 200 being infected so we are not at herd immunity. We are still seeing the virus propagating at low levels.

“The more transmissible the virus the higher the population's level of immunity we would need to be to get to the point where there’s no transmission."

Hinds said, however, that it was an encouraging sign that the virus was circulating at low levels in the population.

So far for the year, TT has recorded 1,254 new covid19 cases in January, February and March including the six days of April.

Two-thirds of deaths were unvaccinated people over 50 with 47 per cent being men.